THURSDAY SPARKS: THEMES & BOOKING THROUGH THURSDAY — SEPT. 6

Welcome to another day of bookish delight, as we celebrate two events.

Theme Thursdays, hosted by Reading Between Pages, is all about finding themes in the books we read and enjoying the writing styles of the authors we explore.

Booking Through Thursday is like a conversation amongst bloggers in response to a prompt issued each week.

Come on by and join in the fun!

Theme Thursdays:

Every week, we choose a theme, which gives us a wonderful opportunity to explore and understand different writing styles and descriptive approaches adopted by authors.

The theme for this week is

WALK , stroll, pace, tread, step etc.

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My theme today comes from Little Night, by Luanne Rice, an emotionally gripping family drama.

Clare Burke’s life took a devastating turn when she tried to protect her sister, Anne, from an abusive and controlling husband and ended up serving prison time for assault. The verdict largely hinged on Anne’s defense of her spouse—all lies—and the sisters have been estranged ever since. Nearly twenty years later, Clare is living a quiet life in Manhattan as an urban birder and nature blogger, when her niece, Grit, turns up on her doorstep.

The two long for a relationship with each other, but they’ll have to dig deep into their family’s difficult past in order to build one. Together they face the wounds inflicted by Anne and find in their new connection a place of healing. When Clare begins to suspect her sister might be in New York, she and her niece hold out hope for a long-awaited reunion with her.

A riveting story about women and the primal, tangled family ties that bind them together, Little Night marks a milestone for Luanne Rice—the thirtieth novel from the author with a talent for creating stories that are “exciting, emotional, terrific” (The New York Times Book Review).

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Snippet:  (A letter from the past has just arrived) – Clare walked into the living room; trying to keep her hands steady, she opened the letter and started to read:

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Booking Through Thursday

We all had to read things in school that we didn’t like … but what
about something you read for a class that you ended up liking (or
loving)? An author you discovered that you might not have found? A
genre you hadn’t thought about?

***

It has been many, maaannnny years since high school, so I had to reflect on this for awhile.  Prior to having assigned reading, though, I mostly read books written by women, like Louisa May Alcott.  So I would say Ernest Hemingway would have been just such an author that I might not have tried.

But after reading For Whom the Bell Tolls and then A Farewell to Arms, I was amazed.

It was years before I read anything by him again, but recalling how I enjoyed his books then, last summer I picked up A Moveable Feast .  

(Click title/cover for my review)

My recent return to Hemingway came about because I’d read and loved The Paris Wife.

What about you?  What “assignments” led to discoveries for you?